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Linguistic Rights Today in Three Spheres of Justice:. Balancing Practices and Policies in University Contexts Yvonne Hébert (U Calgary & Wilfrid Denis ( U Sask ) 2012 Conference, Canadian Sociology Association. Linguistic Rights in Three Spheres of Justice.
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Linguistic Rights Today in Three Spheres of Justice: Balancing Practices and Policies in University Contexts Yvonne Hébert (U Calgary & Wilfrid Denis ( U Sask) 2012 Conference, Canadian Sociology Association
Linguistic Rights in Three Spheres of Justice • Presentation by Wilfrid Denis (St. Thomas More College, U Saskatchewan) and Yvonne Hébert (University of Calgary) • Session on Academic Freedom, with Terry Gillin, Chair. • Annual Conference of the Canadian Sociology Association • 29 May – 02 June, 2012 • University of Waterloo & Wilfrid Laurier University
INTRODUCTION Part one
1. Introduction • Recognition of linguistic rights for OLM in Canada - educ reform • Charter and Official Lgs Act silent on access to post-secondary education in OLM • Issues of recognition, organization & delivery of French language instruction vary across English-dominant Canada • Tripartite model of social justice (N. Fraser, 2009) • Focus: embedded faculty member & program in AB & SK
Justice as a meta-framework Part two
Tripartite model of social justice (2009, 2010) • Redistribution in the economic sphere - issues of misdistribution • Recognition in the socio-cultural sphere - issues of misrecognition • Representation in the political sphere - issues of misrepresentation, misframing • Who? What? How? - criteria for decision making • All subjected principle
Purpose of our Paper • To apply the three-part Nancy Fraser model (2009, 2010) at a medium range or institutional level, rather than at the abstract, global level • Anticipated problems of categorization into types • Questions of who, what and how difficult to establish • Incomplete hegemony, open to slippage • Institutional incoherence, contradictions • Who has right to make claims & nature of such claims
National Context of Post-sec institutions • Two official languages enshrined in the Canadian constitution • Section 23 on official minority language rights • AUCC, University Affairs operate in both official languages • CAUT/ACPPU also supportive - bilingual national organization (Allain, 2008) • Tangible support over the years for French language in university and post-secondary institutions • CAUT – only 5/45 presidents were Francophones • CAUT instituted a Francophone Committee & designated a Francophone position on its Executive, both in 2004 • Parallel movements in Québec & Canada • CSA ceased French language communication in 2012 with office move, QC to ON
Sorting out 3 questions: who, what, how ? • WHAT? • Nature, extent, significance of justice claims increase as faculty members move on continuum from #1 to #5 • Direct impact on working conditions • Teaching, research & publication, and community service tend to be reduced in significance on continuum, #1 to #5 • Lack of weight given to Francophone faculty member’s dossier • WHO ? • ~ 2000-3500 individuals teaching in French in Anglophone Universities • Institutional arrangements between oppressed & oppressor • Continuum of institutional settings: • 1. Stand alone U • 2. Bilingual U • 3. Federated College • 4. Minority Units • 5. Embedded units/persons
Sorting out 3 Questions: Who, What, How? • Four dimensions: • Absence of French lg services pertaining to research • Absence of Frlg services for students • Obligation to translate towards English • Erasure of Francophone presence, participation and worth • HOW? • Course & program approval structures; • Performance Reports; • Merit, tenure, promotion procedures; • Two cases: • U Calgary, U Saskatchewan
Interpretation • Three dimensions to be emphasized in considering two cases: • Difficulty of determining instances of misdistribution or economic penalties, i.e., so serious as to attract an appeal; possible silencing of such possible claims; invisibility of French language issues in these universities; • Anti-hegemonic forces may be more astute in their strategies and frame these in a broader framework, unforeseen by Fraser; • Efforts to reframe these issues so as to raise the profile of French as a national language on Anglophone universities, a political gesture that challenges Anglo-dominant hegemony; • Governancestructures tend to reduce scope, scale of those subjected whereas oppressed groups tend to prefer broader definitions
conclusions Part six
Conclusions • Interplay between economic, political & cultural dimensions are very complex • Issues of recognition seem to impact on economic and political issues • Tendency for issues to take on a collective dimension, not just the sum of isolated individual experiences • All subjected, all affected principles need more reflection as the benign takes on greater proportions in hindsight (or with greater insight?) • Effects of limitations discussed herein amount to forms of surveillance and control of French and Francophone scholars, in the ‘conduct of conduct’ • Scholars & students are disciplined to accept to be minoritized, to being subject to lacks of representation, recognition & redistribution
Linguistic Rights Today in Three Spheres of Justice: Balancing Practices and Policies in University Contexts Yvonne Hébert (U Calgary & Wilfrid Denis ( U Sask) 2012 Conference, Canadian Sociology Association